A Day to Slow Down
by Kurogane Tsubasa
Summary: Just one day with Cobra and Lucy (they are married in this story). Cobra is exhausted from work and sleeping on rocky ground and so Lucy does what she can to make him relax.


_**In this story Cobra is married to Lucy and all charges on him have been dropped after he and his crew helped defeat Zeref. All of them joined Fairy Tail.**_

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Cobra was ready to tear his own ears off and just collapse in the middle of the Fairy Tail guild hall. His back was sore and it just hurt to move at all, even thought he had no idea why it was sore. Must have been when he was helping (or rather forced to help) Mira move around large barrels of wine, beer, food, everything under the sun all day yesterday after being on a mission for a week. He had a constant headache banging around in his head which hearing everyone's souls vibrate in his ears all day was not helping one bit. He just wanted to tune every single sound out and only focus on his own thoughts for once. He felt hungry and wanted to eat something, but everything that was one the menu held no appealing to him and even made his gag a little. Exhaling sharply, Cobra walked out of the guild to trudge home as his headache grew and the sound of more souls compressing in was slowly starting to make him go mad. By the time he reached his house, he was growling, muttering under his breath how he would poison the whole city to shut them up or just run away in the middle of nowhere and enjoy the silence it offered.

Yanking the door open with more force then was necessary; he almost ripped it off of its hinges, before slamming it shut. The first thing he noticed was that the sounds disappeared, leaving a ringing sound echoing in his ears resulting in his headache lessening slightly. The second thing he noticed was that there was a faint smell of a guild mate wafting in the house, but he couldn't remember who. The third thing he noticed was the wonderful smell of homemade food. Following his nose to the kitchen, he felt his bad mood evaporate when he saw his beautiful wife, Lucy, in all her glory: golden silky locks, warm brown eyes, and a soft smile on her face; standing by the oven stirring a pot of noodles with the sauce in a pot next to it. Her soul was humming softly and giving off an aura of quiet contentment as she continued to prepare dinner.

"Oh Cobra. You're home." Lucy offers a quick smile before turning back to the stove.

"I told you that you can call me Erik Blondie and I'm back." Cobra gave a small smirk as he came up behind his wife, wrapping his arms around her, and placing a small kiss on the base of her neck, grunting slightly as he pulled his strained muscles.

"Are you okay?" Lucy questioned as she turned her head around to watch him out of the corner of her eye, hearing his slightly pained grunt.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Cobra tried to reassure her but when she turned completely around and gave him a raised eyebrow silently communicating that she knew he was lying he amended, "I'm just sore."

Her face softened in slight worry before a determined glint found its way to her eyes. Even as he listened to her soul he couldn't figure out why she had that look on her face.

"Okay then. I just finished. I want you to eat, and then shower. Can you please set the table?" Lucy's eyes still glinted as she turned around to the stove and even her soul gave off a feeling of determination. Cobra, feeling a little apprehensive since he couldn't tell exactly why she was so determined, slowly set the table by giving Lucy the bowls to put the food in and putting the forks and drinks in their proper place. Lucy, on her part, forked up the noodles and placed them on the plates, and then she placed the sauce on the noodles with two meatballs each, making a complete plate full of spaghetti. Balancing both plates in her hands, she quickly made her way to the table, after turning off the stove, and placed them in their respective spots before her hands burned from the hot plates. Giving a quick pray in thanks Cobra began to scarf down his food.

"Slower." Lucy said calmly as she gently swatted Cobra's hand. One of Cobra's eyebrows shot up as he silently questioned why she would say that since this was how he always ate and never before has she said that. He read her loud and clear when he saw her face and emotions scream, 'just do it'. Still looking at her in question, he slowed down and began to chew his food earning a gentle smile from his wife. As soon as he finished Lucy hustled him to the bathroom and told him to take his time which earned her another confused glance at her. While he showered he made sure to take at least thirty minutes in the shower and when he had gotten out, took another ten to wipe off and lotion his body and get dressed in his comfy pajamas. When he came out of the bathroom, Lucy was laying on the bed, holding a towel. Several blankets had covered the floor, lying parallel to the bed. He didn't even bother to try and figure it out anymore as he knew that he'd know soon enough.

"Come here. I want to dry your hair." Lucy beckoned with her hand in a 'come here' motion.

"My hair is dry." Cobra smiled, just to give her a hard time.

"Completely dry Erik." And with that Cobra found himself sitting on the floor in front of her as she rubbed the towel through his hair, intent on making every strand water-free. Seven minutes passed and Cobra was absolutely sure that his hair was dry, wondering why she kept at it when she stopped for a brief second and he felt a brush comb through his messy locks. When she had finished brushing all of his hair, in which his hair still defied gravity, she put the brush next to the towel where she had laid it on the bed. To Cobra's confusion, she placed her hands back on his head. Lucy started to gently rub the tips of her fingers throughout his scalp, adding more pressure as time crept by. A sigh of contentment escaped his mouth as he felt his headache decrease as she put pressure in all the right places. Starting to feel drowsy, he remembered something that had been on his mind since walking into the house.

"How come I can't hear the other souls? It seemed like they just disappeared."

"Oh. Right. I had asked Freed to come by after you left to put up ruins that blocked out the sound of souls whenever you wanted some peace and quiet. If you didn't, then he had set them up so that all you had to say was 'Sound' with the intension of hearing everyone's emotions and you'd be able to hear everything again. It would naturally silence all the voices when it feels you being overwhelmed and if you really wanted peace and quiet. So it worked? We had to test it a few times, but we didn't know if the testing worked or not. If not I'll have to talk with Freed again." Lucy explained.

"It worked all right and was just what I needed. Thanks Blondie." Cobra smiled as he felt her still working her magic touch on his head.

"You're welcome." She replied as her hands slid down to his neck and shoulders and began to work out the tension that had built up from being on the go for a week and helping Mira. Sleeping on the ground and tables were not very comfortable after all. Small grunts of pain escaped his mouth as she found his trigger points and pressed directly on them for a good couple of seconds. She always made sure to sooth the area after she worked on it by gently going over it and massaging the pain away. After several minutes, Cobra was starting to feel like he could fall asleep at any moment.

"Okay. I am going to have you lie on your stomach on the blankets and take off your shirt." Lucy commanded, jolting Cobra semi-awake.

"Right." He mumbled as he tossed his shirt off and basically flopped down on the blankets. _"Wait. Why does she want my shirt off?"_ Cobra's thought as he tried to gather his scattered thoughts. His inner question was answered when he heard Lucy reposition herself at his head, heard a bottle cap open, lotion being squeezed out, hands rubbing together, and those same hands spreading the lotion all over his back. He sighed in contentment as she worked to spread the lotion evenly across his back. Then she slowly, but surely began to dig deeper and release all of the knots along the right side of his back. He felt the tension that had gathered in his body seeping out as she worked from his shoulders down to his hips, stopping in places that had trigger points or just working on a muscle that was sore. Placing her hands on the edge of the scapula, she dug her elbow from the top of it and slowly moved her elbow down, crossing over the tender points, and making him release small grunts of pain, until she had reached the end of the scapula. She made sure to dig her fingers in just along the spine and ran them down his back. Cobra never knew that he was so sore and tender in so many parts on the right side of his back. She soothed over his side to help dissipate the pain she had caused him and he felt so much lighter on one side of his back while the other one now felt like a load of rocks was holding him down.

"Okay. On to the other side of your back now." Lucy murmured. Cobra only grunted because the pain was keeping him awake, but at the same time making him fall asleep. She ran over his whole back before focusing on the left side this time and worked to release all of the tension that had accumulated on him. Cobra still twitched with every trigger point she went over and his mind felt like he was there at the moment, but at the same time he wasn't.

Lucy just smiled, knowing how she was affecting her husband. She finished with his back and switched to his hands. Cobra didn't know that the hand to hold so much tension in it until he felt Lucy press into the base of his thumb and into the webbing between the thumb and index finger. Sharp pain in those areas had him jolted into the more awake state as an 'ah ow' escaped him. Lucy soothed the area before moving to his other hand and releasing the tension there. After she had finished with his back and hands, she moved to his feet and gently went over his right foot and gradually going deeper and hitting all the tension points that had gathered. Then doing the same for the left foot. When she had finished, she soothed the areas and went to his neck again and soothed it out as a finisher. She could tell that Cobra was on the verge of falling asleep and quickly, but gently, shook his shoulder.

"Erik, I need you to stay awake for me just a little bit longer. Can you get up and put your shirt on for me?" Lucy questioned. When she heard him grunt she stood up and called over her shoulder, "Make sure to get up slowly and take a few deep breaths before you do."

Cobra was feeling a bit lightheaded as he tried to get up so he took a few deep breaths and felt the feeling mostly go away. He raised himself up and had just put on his pajama shirt when Lucy walked in with a glass of water.

"Here honey. Drink this. It'll wash way all the toxins I released." Lucy explained as she handed him the glass.

"Toxins? Those won't affect me." Cobra reminded her as he took the glass anyways.

"These are different types of toxins. All those tender points that I released with form back even stronger and more tender if you don't wash them away with water. So the massage wouldn't have been very beneficial." Lucy explained.

"Ah." Was all Cobra said before he downed the glass. Lucy picked up all blankets from the ground, folded them, and put them back in the closet where she had gotten them. Cobra picked up the towel and brush from the bed and put them back where the belonged. Then he picked Lucy up as she finished putting the blankets away, turned off the lights, then set her down on the bed. She glared at him with no heat behind her gaze because of the way he treated her, but it melted away when he joined her in bed, pulled the covers over them, and snuggled up to her. She just giggled and wrapped her arms around him.

"Goodnight Erik."

"'Night Bright Eyes." Cobra mumbled as he finally allowed his whole body and mind to relax, falling asleep to Lucy's sweet scent.

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 **Please R &R. Thank you.**


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